Gleacher & Co Analyst on New iPad 2 Tablet Computer

Later today we will be finding out what Apple will be giving us with the new iPad. Speculation has been intensifying over the last few months in what features the iPad 2 will have. Brian Marshall a leading analyst at Gleacher & Co has given his take on the upcoming events.

In an interview with Bloomberg he spoke about the fact the event will concentrate on the new iPad. When asked about the rumors of Steve Jobs being at the event, he said that Apple has nothing to gain with Jobs being present.

It was felt that it would be best for Steve Jobs to concentrate on his health which is more important, and the investment community was fine with him not being at the press event. The analyst thinks the new iPad will look similar to the previous model, but a little bit thinner and lighter.

When it came to actually being able to get your hands on the new iPad Marshall thinks it will be in April. This goes against reports we have spoken about recently that mention the device could be available by next week. Sales wise he thinks the new device will blow the figures of the original away, and expects 30 million iPads to be sold this year.

He goes on to say that Apple have created a market out of nothing, and have generated around $20 billion in sales just from the iPad. This is why we are now seeing the likes of Motorola and Samsung jumping on the tablet bandwagon. Marshall feels that the is room for whoever are number two behind Apple, so what that means for manufacturers further down is anybody’s guess.

When asked about rumors of Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive leaving the company, he said it would not be good for Apple. With the price of the iPad he felt that we could eventually see a price cut as manufacturing costs fall. Catch the interview in full below.